A Cultural Event to Remember

My coworkers and I were invited to a ceromony/event by the ROK (Republic of Korea) Navy to honor Admiral Yi. Being that Admiral Yi was, in many eyes, the greatest naval sea commander of all time, I jumped at a chance to honor this great Korean hero. It was my understanding, that this was the first time that Koreans invited the US Navy to the particular event. The event was held in a sea port town called Tong Yeong. It was a very beautiful city with rich Korean culture and history emanating from throughout. I missed the opportunity to get views of the town from the mountain top as we departed because the camera was completely full of pics.

I thought you might want to see some of the pics.

Here are some Korean Navy artifacts from the Admiral Yi years. Horns, flags, spears, and swords. The Koreans ruled the seas with the help of their unique Turtle Ship (pictured below).

I took a picture of the dancers preparing for the festival.
The entrance to the shrine.

Here is a closer pic of the dancers. (They performed a rendition of the Korean victory dance)
Preparing for the ceremony inside the shrine.

It was my understanding that these older men were the veterans of this ritual. They all bowed before the shrine to pay respect to Admiral Yi.

The men in blue are modern day naval officers which have their escort/teacher to present them and walk them through the ceremonial program.

The Korean ladies performing the traditional Victory Dance.
The band. They played traditional korean instruments throughout the ceremony.

The Victory dance. It was performed twice. Once under the tent in front of the shrine and then again in an open courtyard about 50 yards away.

The Command Master Chief was very kind to teach us Korean customs and help us through the ceremony. He took several pictures of us. I took this pic of him taking my pic while eating.

The foods that were prepared and placed in the shrine were blessed during the ceremony. Upon completion of the ceremony, they served the food to the guests. We had fruits, deserts, bibimbap, and, of course, kim chee. The food went so fast, I only had a brief chance to take this pic of a dessert plate.

This was truly a special moment for me and my fellow shipmates. I was truly honored by the invitation. The Korean navy is awesome.

Art Enthusiasts

Both EJ and Rylie are very interested with arts. Rylie is developing her skill very well. Rose and I are amazed that just a couple of months ago, she would just scribble with no particular shape on it. But now she can actually draw good by just looking on the figure. Encouragement and praises is a very vital aspects that we need to do to develop our children's talents.Here's EJ taking a break with his mouth full of brownies hehehe..

Big Sister

Our daughter Rylie, always want to get involve to whatever we do. She always prepare her brother's clothes to wear whenever my wife is cleaning EJ up. She wants to feed him, give him bath and do just anything that we need to do. Sometimes, she would tell me,"Hey dad, can I clean the furniture?" Stuff like that makes our heart so proud of her.

Basic Information about Stroke

This article writtten by Diana Rodriguez and medically reviewed by Pat F. Bass III, MD, MPH caught my interest. It tells you all about strokes. So read on guys...

A person has a stroke when blood fails to reach brain cells due to a blood clot or bleeding in the brain. The symptoms of a stroke often aren't as clear as those of some other health conditions, so when one occurs, it can be hard to understand exactly what is happening and difficult to figure out what to do. Because emergency care is so essential to avoiding long-term damage and death from stroke, understanding the warning signs and assessing your own stroke risk can make a huge difference in the outcome.

A stroke may seem like something that only happens to other people — and the thinking is usually that those people are older, in ill health, and also have heart disease. But in reality, stroke can affect many different kinds of people and have a range of effects on their health, life, and physical and mental abilities.

Stroke: The 411
Simply put, a stroke is what happens when blood can't reach the brain. This can happen for two main reasons: a blood clot or other blockage in an artery keeps blood from reaching the brain, causing an stroke; or a blood vessel bursts, causing a hemorrhagic stroke. (Another name that you may hear for stroke is cerebrovascular accident, or CVA.) When blood, and the crucial nutrients and oxygen it carries, can't reach the brain, brain cells can quickly die, leaving permanent damage.

About 700,000 Americans have strokes each year, and 150,000 of them will die as a result. There are approximately 5.7 million stroke survivors in the United States today, many of whom suffered permanent disability caused by their stroke.

Although strokes are the third most frequent cause of death in the United States, the good news is that nearly 80 percent of strokes can be prevented if people make lifestyle choices that help them maintain good health.

My son is a Flirt

When we were in the Philippines, we used to eat to these food garden in one of the malls in Legazpi City. One time, we were busy eating with our lunch when suddenly EJ got off his seat and went to the nearest table with three ladies. He started saying hi and giving them high fives. I think my wife will be a strict guard when our son reaches his teen age lol.

EJ reminds me of ME

When I came home today for lunch, my wife was cleaning up the dresser of our son's room. I asked her what happen and she said that EJ got busy. He asked her mom to put him in bed for a nap but when her mom closed the door, he climbed up in the dresser and poured out the bottle of cologne, spread out the cotton buds and other stuff in the room. I was laughing when I saw that because it reminds me of my childhood. My mom told me that I used to squirt the toothpaste out, dump lotion or shampoos and just any kind of ornery things.

Sit Ups

I was teasing my wife about her "bilbil" as she calls it so she got so self conscious about it that she started jogging again. She also started doing sit ups at home. She started with 5 and I was laughing because she had a hard time with it. The next day however, I was impressed because she did 10 and I only asked 7. Yesterday she was doing her sit ups again but our son EJ interfered, he rode on Mommy's tummy lol..

Coo for Sweet Tooth

Both of our kids got the sweet tooth trait from my clan. My son can eat sweet treats like cookies, cake and stuff like that.Whenever he is in the bad mood, he immediately feel good if you say "Do you want some cookie?" He calls cookies "COO".

Thanks for dropping by friends.. Have a safe weekend..

Looking Forward

I have three subjects for my online class this semester so I am really busting my butt off just to cope up with all the assignments and quizzes. Reading and researching eats a lot of my time and its a little hard for me because I have two kids that constantly wants to play with me. What I don't like with some of the instructors is that they changes the due dates of assignments given to us without considering the fact that we have other stuff to do too. I am looking forward to finishing this online class, I prefer going to a real school where I can ask the professor questions about certain topics related to our subjects. With online class, instructors basically just throw you a bunch of assignments to do, papers to write and topics to research to.

Always wear clean underwear

I am so glad that I am surrounded with humorous people like niece Jen because I constantly receive funny emails which lighten up my day. Read this guys and tell me what ya think, have fun lol!

Always wear clean underwear in public, especially when working under your vehicle. From the Northwest Florida Daily News comes this story of a Crestview couple who drove their car to Wal-Mart, only to have their car break down in the parking lot.

The man told his wife to carry on with the shopping while he fixed the car in the lot. The wife returned later to see a small group of people near the car. On closer inspection, she saw a pair of male legs protruding from under the chassis.

Although the man was in shorts, his lack of underpants turned private parts into glaringly public ones. Unable to stand the embarrassment, she dutifully stepped forward, quickly put her hand UP his shorts, and tucked everything back into place.

She took a deep breath and stood up boldly to face the crowd. She looked across the hood and found herself staring at her husband who had been standing idly by.  The mechanic, however, had to have three stitches in his forehead

AMAZING SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES

Hey guys, i want to share these jokes that my buddy sent me in email. My wife and I were cracking with some of these lol.. ENJOY!

1. IF YOU'RE CHOKING ON AN ICE CUBE, SIMPLY POUR A CUP OF BOILING WATER DOWN YOUR THROAT. PRESTO! THE BLOCKAGE WILL INSTANTLY REMOVE ITSELF.

2. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.

3. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK.

4. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.

5. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.

6. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.

7. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.

8. REMEMBER - EVERYONE SEEMS NORMAL UNTIL YOU GET TO KNOW THEM.

9. IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.


DAILY THOUGHT:
SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES - NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS.

Emma

We visited friends of our family in Donsol and their cat had a litter of kittens. Rylie played with the kittens the whole time we were there so they offered to give her one of them. She chose a white and orange kitten but it got away from her and refused to be caught but she gladly accepted her second choice seen below. Rylie named her Emma. Emma means a great deal to Rylie, that's why she was bummed out that she couldn't bring her back to Korea. Grandma will take care of Emma until Rylie returns.

Our Easter Celebration

Belated happy Easter everyone. How did you celebrate yours? This year's Easter is so much fun because it wasn't raining like last year. I also like the venue where we held it, more spaceous and you will enjoy the beauty of the sorroundings.

The entrance of the Turtle Cove where we had our brunch.

Rylie took us a pic... Good thing our smiles are still in the picture lol..

Enjoying her vegetable salad.
Here's EJ with his food.

My share
The JBL band played while we were eating, thanks guys you made the food taste much better.

After we ate, the kids enjoyed plunging in the Sea of balls

We did a lot of things and we enjoyed it so much. You may find some other activities that we did on my wife's blog. Thanks for coming by and sharing your comments.